Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is expected to get a rare tour on Monday of China's first aircraft carrier, becoming the first foreign visitor to go aboard the ship.

A senior defence official said Hagel requested the visit, which comes a day after he told reporters that China must better respect its neighbours – a pointed allusion to Beijing's ongoing territorial dispute with Japan and others over remote islands in the East China Sea. He has also continued to urge Beijing to be more transparent about its expanding military.

China spent a decade refurbishing the derelict Soviet-era carrier, which it bought from Ukraine before commissioning it as the Liaoning in 2012. The ship moved to Qingdao in February 2013 and is part of a major expansion of the Chinese navy that includes sophisticated new surface ships and submarines.

Early this year the Liaoning completed sea trials in the South China Sea. The official Xinhua News Agency said the carrier tested its combat system, conducted a formation practice and "attained the anticipated objectives".

On 5 December, early in the Liaoning's trial run, one of the Chinese ships accompanying it was involved in a near collision with a US navy cruiser, the USS Cowpens, when it was operating in international waters in the South China Sea. US navy officials said the Cowpens maneouvered to avoid the collision, but it marked the two nations' most serious sea confrontation in years.

At the time, a Chinese media report said the US ship got too close to the Liaoning.

Hagel is on a 10-day trip to the Asia Pacific region and was leaving Japan on Monday to travel to China. He is scheduled to meet senior Chinese leaders before traveling to Mongolia, then returning home.

At the weekend, Hagel announced that the US will send two additional ballistic missile destroyers to Japan to counter the North Korean threat, and said China must better respect its neighbours.

In unusually forceful remarks about China, Hagel drew a direct line between Russia's takeover of Ukraine's Crimea region and the ongoing territorial disputes between China, Japan and others over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.

"I think we're seeing some clear evidence of a lack of respect and intimidation and coercion in Europe today with what the Russians have done with Ukraine," Hagel told reporters after a meeting with Japanese defense minister Itsunori Onodera.

"We must be very careful and we must be very clear, all nations of the world, that in the 21st century this will not stand, you cannot go around the world and redefine boundaries and violate territorial integrity and sovereignty of nations by force, coercion and intimidation whether it's in small islands in the Pacific or large nations in Europe."

The announcement of the deployments of additional destroyers to Japan came as tensions with North Korea spiked again, with Pyongyang continuing to threaten additional missile and nuclear tests.

In recent weeks the North has conducted a series of rocket and ballistic missile launches that are considered acts of protest against annual ongoing springtime military exercises by Seoul and Washington. North Korea says the exercises are rehearsals for invasion.

North and South Korea also fired hundreds of artillery shells into each other's waters in late March, in the most recent flare-up.

Standing alongside Onodera at the defence ministry, Hagel said they discussed the threat posed by Pyongyang. He said the two ships are in response to North Korea's "pattern of provocative and destabilizing actions" that violate United Nations resolutions and also will provide more protection to the US from those threats.

China's first aircraft carrier, which was renovated from an old aircraft carrier that China bought from Ukraine in 1998, is seen docked at Dalian Port. Photograph: China Daily/Reuters

On Friday, North Korea accused the US of being "hell-bent on regime change" and warned that any maneouvres with that intention will be viewed as a "red line" that will result in countermeasures. Pyongyang's deputy UN ambassador, Ri Tong Il, also said his government "made it very clear we will carry out a new form of nuclear test", but refused to provide details.

The two additional ships would bring the total to seven US ballistic missile defence warships in Japan, and it continues US efforts to increase its focus on the Asia Pacific.

The ships serve as both defensive and offensive weapons. They carry sophisticated systems that can track missile launches, and their SM-3 missiles can zero in on and take out short- to medium-range missiles that might be fired at US or allied nations. They can also carry Tomahawk cruise missiles, which can be launched from sea and hit high-value targets or enemy weapons systems from afar, without risking pilots or aircraft.

Japan and China have been engaged in a long, bitter dispute over remote islands in the East China Sea. The US has said it takes no side on the question of the disputed islands' sovereignty, but it recognises Japan's administration of them and has responsibilities to protect Japanese territory under a mutual defence treaty.